


After the storm

by wordweilder



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Gendrya - Fandom, arya stark/gendry baratheon - Fandom, aryaXgendry week 2018 - Fandom, gendry legitimised
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordweilder/pseuds/wordweilder
Summary: The events  on his journey to the wall turns Gendry's world upside down . Through all the death , the fighting , the hiding he manages to find a true friend , true family and then loses her because of his own insecurities. Now that he has found his place in this dangerous game , he realizes that he cannot rest easy without finding her .





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have not completed my other fic ...Finding my place but I am having a writer's block , I did not plan for the entire story and am stuck on the direction it needs to take. This is my offering as part of the arya/gendry week 2018

A Baratheon

 

 

“Things could always turn a lot shitier……”  the men had often japed on the way to the wall . Whenever one recruit  lamented at their slow pace , the cold or the scarcity of food. The others were quick to shut him up with the promise of worse luck up ahead .

As for Gendry , he had never placed high expectations from his pathetic life . He figured being a bastard , he was entitled to nothing so anything he had was better than that. At Tobho’s he had a trade and decent board and bread , he hadn’t much need of anything else. When he was sent for the wall for no reason , he accepted it calmly . It was a cold place to be sure, but his life could have had more purpose there . It was deeply ingrained in him to find hope in even the gloomiest of circumstances, for you cannot live a shitty life without hoping for something better.

 

He had been tortured , hunted , enslaved , beaten up on his way to the wall , had seen the horrors of Harrenhall and men treated as pigs and women as objects and yet in that short amount of time , amidst all the dangers and evil , he had found not only a purpose , but friends he would have given his life for. A fat baker ,a thin dyer’s apprentice  and a little girl who would send fiery looks to anyone who dared oppose her .Running for their lives with them had been the most trying and still the most rewarding time of his life . When they were not in any immediate danger , they would always find ways to insult and amuse each other at the same time .

For the first time it seemed like he belonged and then Lommy died and hot pie left . It was still fine till he had Arya . Everything was always fine whilst she was around . The little spitfire could get him from angry to frustrated to blithe... all in seconds .

“I knew getting out of the damned forge would do you good . I was beginning to think you too were born with a frown on your face like your uncle but here you are smiling at nothing. ”  Sir Davos’s words brought him out of his silent reverie.

“I was , ah …… just admiring the view from my chamber.” Gendry floundered trying to come up with a response lest he be stuck with another one of Davos’s musings about his life.

“That view is to your back and I bet you couldn’t tell me the number of ships that are currently sailing from the bay if your life depended on it .” Davos let out with eyes shining of mirth and then quickly added “My lord” when he saw the dour look Gendry sent his way.

 

Leave it to Davos to insult and grace you in the same sentence . _Arya would have been impressed_ with his wit and sharp tongue that he more often than not, used to berate Gendry , she would have found a kindred spirit.

“There you again …..you’re starting to scare me with your smile . ” Davos noted while Gendry sighed in defeat .

“Its nothing …..did you get any reply from Winterfell or the Wall?”

“You just sent the Raven yesterday!! It takes time for it to fly and reach its destination or did you forget ? What is it about the stark girl that has you losing your wits,boy ? The starks are hunted by many , its not wise to declare your side in a war so early ”

Gendry bristled at being called a boy but held his tongue , Davos was a strong advisor and he was too new to this game to trust anyone else . He had been recently legitimised as the last Baratheon heir by the same uncle who had one wanted to burn him once .

Stannis had expressed his last wish to Brienne of Tarth to further his house through Gendry after having murdered his brother and his daughter in the name of conquest. Once Brienne shared it with Davos , he immediately set out to King’s Landing to get Gendry, where he had been stewing for a moon making swords for the Lannisters .

 

It had been a few weeks past that he was officialy named as the Baratheon heir of Storm’s end . He was unchallenged as all the other bastards and possible heirs had been killed by the Lannnisters or Stannis. His first order as the Lord was to do all he could to help out the starks and find out about his long lost friend .

 

“Stannis is dead , Robb Stark is dead , Joffrey is dead , Renly is dead . There is no war but a kingdom so broken it is fighting to keep up . The Lannisters tried to kill me , the Baratheons even tried to kill me . The only ones who saved me were starks…….Ned stark got me out of the city and then Arya got me through it all . No one has heard of her ……no one . I spent years trying to search for her , all I got was she was with the hound before going missing. She always wanted to go back to winterfell , there is no place else she could have gone . ”

Gendry’s voice had started to crack at the end of his impassioned speech.

 

Davos was about to shout that a little girl couldn’t have survived on her own for that long but the look in the boy’s eyes was so fragile he decided to let him hope . His new lord was not one for so many words but any talk of her bought his passion out . The curse of Baratheon men , he mused. Robert was infamous for his love of the she wolf and seems his last heir suffers the same affliction.

Gendry may chalk it all out to his gratitude to the starks for helping him but the hope surging in his eyes was not of a man looking to settle a debt. He prayed that the son might have better luck than the father .

 

Apparently his prayers fell to deaf ears since a messenger arrived without preamble to give him a raven . It wasn’t from Winterfell or the wall , it took him a second to figure out the sigil or it was years since he had seen it .

 

His lord’s insistence to find the stark girl had him trying all of his sources for information and apparently one had heard of her fate .

 

Gendry saw Davos reading the message while a huge shadow of grief settled on his face  . He tried to catch his eye but Davos seemed to avoid his gaze. That was odd , Davos was a practical man but he was blunt as a hammer , always having a comment or two about anything really . His silence was causing him distress.

He edged his hand forward , silently asking for the small scroll that Davos had already read . He had a difficulty in reading big words but small messages were fine .

“I know not of the girl’s whereabouts but I have heard tales of her return to Winterfell. Came with her ward brother, Forced to wed the bastard Bolton. They say her cries can be heard all through wintertown. Bastard has kept her a secret from the realm lest the northern lords rally for her cause. Reckon he’s waiting for a heir before ending the girl’s misery .”

 

 

 

 As he read the last sentence , he could feel his heart breaking for her . After so long pining for her home , this could not become of her . She would not have accepted the bastard like that but then he remembered her small size. For all her fiereness , she was still a girl and consent matters not to a lord who had everything to gain from her name alone . His eyes were starting to sting when his pain gave way to fury . Gendry had always been calm and the fury running through him surprised even him. In that moment , one thing was clear to him . He had to end this , end _him_ , if this was his first and last act as a lord then so be it . But he will get her  back . He turned his back on her once, not again , never again.

 

 

And so with finality , he turned to Davos “You were right , the war isn't over yet.”

Whatever Davos saw in his eyes , he did not know but for once , he saw acceptance . He may not have felt like it when they made him a lord but today , He was a Baratheon.

 


	2. A War To Prepare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gendry prepares for war to get back his wolf from the Bolton bastard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of a continuation of the first chapter but decide to post seperately because there is a time gap between this and the first one.Please post comments as that helps me to know of anyone is reading the story or is interested to read more of it.

He had never felt like a lord but an imposter . When the servants curtseyed , he had to fight the urge to look over his shoulder . He had been bored at his lessons and longed for his forge . Even eating his food like a lord had curbed his apetite and detracted him from its taste. That was yesterday.  
Today he did not feel like a boy as Davos used to call him , Today he was a man , a Baratheon , a lord , a player of this game moving his pieces to take down the Bolton bastard . His first instinct was to rally his troops and rain bloody murder on Ramsey but as was harshly pointed out to him , Keeping your head is more important than strength in a battle. Hence he needed strategy and cunning to win , though he was short both counts luckily Davos had it in spades.  
“You can not go to war on rumours and heresay . We will rally troops and gather support but will openly declare war once we have all the pieces . ” Davos advised.  
“Jon snow says he is working on an escape plan for her . We should wait for that before we march or he will use her as his scapegoat” Lord Butler put in his two scents at the war council.  
“I must ask you to rethink , this kingdom has seen too much war . You are willing to burn these lands again after weeks of being a lord , the people have already suffered much and as the starks say, winter is coming” Cressen , the maester of Storm’s end , an elderly man with slurry words but a sharp tongue added.  
Gendry was tolerant and respected the old man but there were no words for him to turn back now . He knew in his gut that this is what he was supposed to do.  
“This will win us an alliance with the north and the riverlands, possibly even the Vale .There is no one who can weather winter better than the starks . The Lannisters will always pose a threat to us , Tyrells have already declared for them My being a Baratheon threatens Tommen’s claim to the throne , they will not take it lightly. . If we do not get the support we need , there will be no aid if the Lannisters decide to attack. ”  
He knew most of his so called advisers were thinking he was too hasty for war as his father , the maester was simply honest enough to voice his concerns . He had already discussed with Davos the finer details of his declaration and what to say to win his lords over . Apparently words could turn the tide , as he now could see conviction in place of worry and doubt that were clouding the council before .

“We move with our host to the wall before news of my Legitimisation reaches King’s Landing. Jon Snow is Lord commander of the night’s watch . He may not interfere but he will give us shelter for his favourite sister.”  
“And how do you suppose we will get past the neck . The reason north has never been taken before was southern armies couldn’t get past the neck. The lord of winterfell controls any army entering his region through there.”  
“Yes but we will not go as an army flying Baratheon banners , but as brothers of the night’s watch . We have been getting ravens from the watch for sending aid. We will simply be answering that call making for the wall.” Gendry confidently steered the conversation back to the lingering war.  
A few hours later when all was said and said (not done , because all highborns were required to do was talk and talk while the smallfolk carried out all the work) He hoped that Jon’sn escape plan would work and Bolton would submit, his blinding fury aside , he did not want to put his men through another war. Bolton would get what was coming for him , he just hoped not too much blood will be split for the likes of him. He would give his life for her , but the lives of all his men were also at stake here . 

He needed to think with both his brain and his heart and not take any decisions based solely on his affection for the grey eyed girl. He had been keeping himself busy with all the preparation and meeting that came with war, for he could no longer stand thinking about what she would have gone through . Life was cruel, Gendry was no stranger to that thought. But how much crueller coud it get for her , she had everything and one by one everything was taken from her .  
He would never forget the haunted look she would get when talking about her father , the broken voice when she had offered him to be her family. Oh , what a fool he had been to go on thinking he would have had no place in her world. A world of Kings and Lords , a world that disgusted him so much with its hypocrisy and arrogance , that he left her to fend for herself . Well technically he was taken but still , he had hurt her and had meant to leave her . 

For that he would never forgive himself .


End file.
